This patent application includes an Appendix on one compact disc having a file named appendix.txt, created on Jan. 17, 2001, and having a size of 351,000 bytes. The compact disc is incorporated by reference into the present patent application.
Portions of the documentation in this patent document contain material that is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.
Computer database technology, the Internet and automation have enabled an uprecedented production of new data and analysis capabilities for recording and managing scientific data. For example, the biotechnology sector produces vast amounts of data, primarily due to highly automated combinatorial techniques for drug discovery.
However, the management of discovery-driven scientific processes is not as readily amenable to such automation since experimental designs and results may be highly variable. The current industry approach to managing the scientific processes is to use xe2x80x9celectronic notebooks.xe2x80x9d An electronic notebook (also referred to as an xe2x80x9celectronic RandD notebookxe2x80x9d or an xe2x80x9celectronic laboratory notebookxe2x80x9d) is the electronic equivalent of a paper research notebook. The electronic notebook receives inputs from keyboards, sketchpads, pointer devices (e.g., a mouse), image files, microphones, or outputs of scientific instruments. Electronic notebook software typically allows for collaborative work so that scientists in different remote locations may collaborate on scientific tasks by sharing common records containing ideas, data, and events of joint experiments and research programs.
There are various approaches to implement electronic notebooks. Numerous industry projects are underway to create standardized electronic notebooks for the research community. Some projects include (1) DOE 2000 Electronic Notebook Project; (2) Collaborative Electronic Notebook Systems Consortium; (3) Virtual Notebook Environment (ViNE) developed at University of Oregon; and (4) ZOO which is a generic Desktop Experiment Management Environment (see http://www.cs.wisc.edu/ZOO).
One difficulty with the flexibility of most general purpose electronic notebooks is that inherent data tractability is somewhat limited and highly dependent upon the initiative of the researcher to include sufficient information when recording experiments. In other words, there is generally no standard mechanism to trace data related to a particular experiment within an electronic notebook environment. Also, the primary application of electronic notebooks lies in the recording of experiments, with limited attention to other aspects of laboratory management.
It would be desirable to provide an electronic system that can encompass not only laboratory research, but also virtually all other components involved in the discovery-driven research operation. It would also be desirable to provide a system that allows users of research databases to selectively manipulate the structure of the database for their particular needs, without the user needing to possess computer programming skills. Furthermore, it would be desirable to use such a system for commercial purposes so that queries of interest to commercial entities may be entered into the system, respondents may enter answers into the system, and the answers may be sold to the commercial entities.